When we finally learned that Toi and Kazuki had met in the past, we were so surprised! Toi and his brother had just gone through the worst, and Toi was ready to give up everything he loved for his brother. He decided to quit soccer, throwing his ball and micanga over the side of the bridge. Standing at the bottom of the bridge was Kazuki. Kazuki receives the micanga from Toi and decides to use this momentum to play soccer himself, hoping that it will give him the connections he has been looking for.

This was a surprising moment for us, especially because Kazuki didn’t seem to remember it at all. The micanga had already been an important symbol for Kazuki’s relationship with Enta, and we also discovered that it was an important symbol for Toi and Kazuki with this scene.

For quite some time, Kazuki has been texting with his brother Haruka as Sara Azuma. When he is discovered, he flees and hides for a time. He feels guilty for what happened with Haruka’s accident and he tried to make up for it in various ways and heal their connection, but yet continued to drown himself in guilt. Haruka sends one last text to his brother, which is only revealed to us after Haruka is captured. It was a powerful moment, hearing Haruka’s side of the situation and learning how much love he has for his brother.

Haruka’s message was part of what helped change Kazuki in the end, as he fought to save his little brother. Kazuki had been struggling up until that point. He felt he did not deserve to connect with his brother, but that was all he wanted. This was the turning point to help him return to the person he used to be. From this point on, Kazuki is much happier and it is all thanks to Haruka reaching out to his brother.

Mabu and Reo were some of the most mysterious characters from the beginning, though we eventually learn the truth about them. Reo thought that Mabu had died and been replaced by a fake, yet he continued to hope for his partner to return. The tragic truth of the matter is that Mabu had really returned, but he was forced to sever his connection with Reo in order to be with him. It is a truly twisted revelation and results in an emotional scene when Mabu finally sacrifices himself in the hopes that Reo will get what he wants.

As Toi, Kazuki, and Enta completed the final Sarazanmai, instead of leaking information from the past, they were shown moments from a potential future. We see plenty of difficult scenes ahead for the three boys. Yet the main scene connecting all of their possible futures together is one of the three boys playing soccer together on a competitive level. It’s heartwarming to see that, though they might have many more struggles ahead of them, Toi, Enta, and Kazuki could still have that bright future they had dreamed about together! This is one of the most powerful and inspiring moments from the series.

Toi has fought through self-hatred and judgment in order to be at his brother’s side. When he finally gets to leave with his brother, he is torn because of his new friendships with Enta and Kazuki. In the end, he does leave with his brother, but his brother dies shortly after in a gunfight, leaving Toi alone once again.

This death scene is emotional for many reasons. Toi was without any family at all and he had also just severed his connections with his friends, leaving him feeling truly alone. And though his older brother had always seemed like a bad influence, Toi finding the picture of him in his brother’s pocket shows how much he really cares. There is a reason this moment is what drives Toi to want to destroy all of his connections, and we see the despair he feels vividly in this scene.